introduced? it's a budding internet controversy. it's "way too early" for this. good morning. this is "way too early," the show booed by good people like you screaming at your tv sets every morning at 5:30 eastern time. i can almost hear the boos now. glad you are up with us this morning watching on msnbc or listening live on sirius xm radio. shoot me an e-mail and let us know why you are awake, or text the word awake followed by your response to 622639. the next 30 minutes will be your cram session for this tuesday, september 28th. record that rahm emanuel could be packing his things and leaving the white house by the end of the week. plus monday night football goes down to the final seconds.

that's jay cutler from the vanderbilt university. look at him keep the bears undefeated. where did the bears come from? we'll tell you how this rivalry game with the packers came down to the last tick. first the news live at 5:30 a.m. at 30 rock in new york city. for the first time since the publication of bob woodward's new book "obama's wars" vice president joe biden is speaking out about his reported clashes with president obama on afghanistan policy. last night on lawrence o'donn l o'donnell's new show "the last word" lawrence asked the president what the situation in afghanistan would look like today if the administration had adopted biden's strategy of fewer troops. >> president obama is president of the united states. i told him i would give him my unvarnished opinion and back it up with the facts as i saw them. the president had the most thorough going review. the american people should read bob woodward's book, at the end of the book they'll see a

president who was a leader, a president who approached problems in an analytical way and made sound decisions that everyone signed on to including joe biden. >> that's been the argument from the white house. no controversy here, just vigorous debate at the white house. joe biden also addressed the part of the book where biden reportedly called richard holbrooke "the most egotist cal bastard i ever met." >> it may not shock you that people talk about dixie just about they talking about my being too loquacious. they didn't say the end of the sentence. i told the president he's the best man for the job. he should have the job. this is one of the most talented diplomats we've had in 30 years. he's been my friend for 35 years. i think he's the right guy for the job. and so richard knows that. >> just to be clear, he is one.

>> bob woodward will be on "morning joe" tomorrow for his first cable interview for that new book that caused such a stir. in last night's interview, the vice president also revised comments he made earlier in the day that the democratic party's base should "stop whining." that's a quote. speaking at a fund-raiser in new hampshire yesterday for three congressional candidates, biden said democrats should "remind our base constituency to stop whining and get out there and look at the alternatives." last night biden dialed back that criticism. >> there's some on the democratic base, not the core of it, that are angry because we didn't get every single thing they want. it's time to just buck up here, understand that we can make things better, continue to move forward, and -- but not yield the playing field to those folks who are against everything that we stand for in terms of the

initiatives we put forward. >> joe biden's take on the democratic party. now he gave his take on the lawrence on the republican party and specifically sarah palin. >> this is not even your father's republican party. these folks don't want to talk. these folks don't want to enter into a compromise. they don't want to come up with practical solutions. i know what they're against. what i don't know is what they're for. >> what do you have to teach democrats about how to stop the palin, no relationship, by the way, the palin o'donnell phenomenal? >> take the boat seriously. treat them with respect, debate their ideas, don't get diverted by all these silly things they may or may not have said that have nothing to do with policy. this is a wake-up call to democrats. we have to show up and we have to make our case and focus on the differences, not the personalities. >> lawrence o'donnell off to a

big start tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern time on "the last word" his guest, levi johnson. president obama kicks off a three-state cross-country trip this morning in an effort to generate voter enthusiasm ahead of the november midterm elections. the president's tour starts in new mexico where he will hold a small backyard event to sell his party's plans to fix the economy. he then heads to the university of wisconsin to headline a rally courting young voters there in madison. tomorrow the president holds another backyard talk with families in des moines, iowa. according to mark halpern, these are all states in which democrats are in danger of losing the gubernatorial campaign and other key races. he said it would be interesting to see if democrats choose with the president or steer clear of him coming up with the dreaded scheduling conflict. yesterday president obama claimed a crucial political victory for the democrats after

signing a $30 billion small business jobs act into law. >> this law will do two big things. it's going cut taxes. it's going to make more loans available for small business. it's a great victory for america's entrepreneurs. i regret this was blocked for months by the republican minority in the senate, and that needlessly delayed this relief. but i do want to thank the two republican senators who bucked this partisanship to help pass this bill. and obviously i want to thank all the democrats who worked so hard to get it passed. >> white house chief of staff rahm emanuel made it no secret he would like to run for mayor of chicago. now sources close to him say a final decision to leave the white house to run could come as early as this friday. three days from now. president obama has not yet picked rahm's replacement if there is to be one, but politico is reporting that the president is leaning towards someone already inside the inner circle. politico says the only three

people considered seriously are deputy national security adviser tom donilon, ron klain and pete rouse. a report in the new york times is quoting general david petraeus, the top commander in afghanistan, as saying that taliban leaders have reached out to the afghan government in an attempt to end the fighting there. reconciliation talks have been stalled for months. a spokesman for hamid karzai confirmed there has been contact with the taliban at every level but warned communications could not be characterized as the start of negotiations. north korea's kim jong-il made his youngest son, kim jong-un a four-star general this morning, a move many say he is

confirmation to be groomed as succeeder to his old moon. it came hours after the start of a rare ruling party meeting to elect top leadership. at that gathering, kim jong-il was also expected to appoint other family members to top posts as part of plans to take the communist dynasty into a third generation. a crazy and sad story as the multimillionaire owner of the segway scooter company is dead. apparently after falling off a cliff while riding a segway. those are those two-wheeled electric scooters. priss say the 62-year-old was testing a cross-country version of the self-balancing segway near his estate in england sunday when he lost control of it. what are the odds? the owner of the segway company dying in a segway accident. terrible. let's look now at the markets as we get all up in your business. steve sedgwick is live in london. good morning, steve. >> reporter: very good to see

you today. once again we're hoping m & a activity can lift the market. the dow finished lower yesterday despite southwest is buying air tran for a deal worth around 1.4 billion u.s. dollars in cash and shares. the deal was expected to close in 2011, and will lift southwest from about the sixth largest carrier in the states to the fourth largest carrier. expected to take about $400 million in cost out of the combined entity by 2013 and will go up against the big carriers. the markets themselves today, they are called flat to slightly lower at the start of trading. we are looking for signs of consumer confidence. the august data came in at 53.5. we expect the september data to come up somewhat as consumer confidence has concerns around unemployment and the housing market. look for around a figure of 52, which shows expansion but a lesser pace than august. back to you.

>> thank you very much. still ahead on "way too early," monday night drama in chicago as devon hester's return magic, and jay cutler give the bears a chance to beat the packers in the last play of the game. we will show you the monsters of the midway and if they can stay undefeated. and pseudo controversy on "dancing with the stars." some say it sounds like sarah palin was booed when she was on the show last night. we will break down the tape. that important story and a check on weather when "way too early" comes back. >> working closely with my administration, congressional leaders from both parties produced the emergency economic stabilization act. a bold bill that will help keep the crisis in our financial system from spreading throughout our economy. [ male announcer ] the turn changes everything.

♪ the turn will make you think. ♪ make you re-examine your approach. change your line. innovate. and create one of the world's fastest-reacting suspensions, reading the road 1,000 times per second. it's the turn that leads you somewhere new. introducing the new 2011 cts-v coupe. from cadillac. the new standard of the world. let's raise a glass

to cookies just out of the oven. to the morning bowl of cereal. and to lactaid® milk. easy to digest and with all the calcium and vitamin d of regular milk. [ female announcer ] lactaid®. the original lactose-free milk. and vitamin d of regular milk. funny thing about vegetables... they fill you up without filling you out. yes! v8 juice gives you three of your five daily servings of vegetables. that's what i'm talking about! v8. what's your number? in the science of color with quattron. by adding a fourth color -- yellow... yellow. banana. ...to the standard rgb color system, quattron produces more colors... banana! ...and makes images brighter. banana! banana! when seen in 3d -- whoa! whoa! aah! quattron makes tv so realistic... whoa! ...you won't believe your eyes. [ male announcer ] aquos quattron 3d from sharp. [ engineer laughs ] you have to see it, to see it. [ engineer laughs ] so, we book a flight to hawaii using our points from chase sapphire.

last minute... on christmas. and sitting next to us, chevy chase. and we really hit it off. we play golf, and then the luau. he's like da vinci with ice. and after, we help hang christmas decorations. wait, wait, wait. you flew last minute... on christmas... with points from chase sapphire? yeah. amazing. believe it. with points from chase sapphire, you can book airline tickets with no blackout dates or restrictions. : eakout session is got the gecko t-shirt... "4 million drivers switched!" gecko water bottle... notebook... chamois... gecko: sir, i feel a little bit uncomfortable with all... you know... with all this. i mean, it's not about me. should be about how geico's the third-largest car insurance company in the nation. things like that. boss: oh, of course! we're not gonna get carried away. gecko: uh...yeah... all right as long as we don't overdo it. vo: geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

5:43 in the morning. united states capital in washington. let's check your weather now from meteorologist dominica davis. good morning. >> good morning. the rain is not coming down in d.c. now but it will be before the day is over. looking at another rainy day along the east coast. across the satellite and the radar, that's only where we are seeing the rain. it's pushed along the east coast. up and down the i-95 corridor, scattered showers and thunderstorms will continue through the afternoon. the difference between yesterday and today is that we're going to have a chance for severe weather today, but on and off heavy downpours. loss a look at the wet forecast. keep the rain gear handy across the rest of the country. out to the west, l.a., they were up to 113.

that was an all-time record high. that beat the old record of 112. the heat backs off a bit out to the west coast, dry through the middle part of the country. we get a break in the rain along the east coast tomorrow. then it returns by thursday unfortunately. keep the rain gear handy if you are in the east coast. willie? >> dominica, thanks. 113 in l.a. and a deluge yesterday in new york. it looks like it will continue on the east coast. monday night football, undefeated rivals packers and bears going at it in chicago. let's jump to the fourth quarter. packers leading 10-7. people have stopped kicking to devin hester. he doesn't return anymore, because they never kick to him. they tried last night. this is why people don't kick to devin hester. takes it to the house. a quick run to the inside, 62 yards. jumped over the kicker for the score. bears up 14-10. later in the fourth, two minutes left in the game. tied at 17. aaron rogers dumps the ball to

james jones. he is stripped. urlacher with a mean left hook. knocks the ball out. that leads to this. robby gould from 19 yards out. bears win 20-17. they remain undefeated. they sit alone atop the nfc north, 3-0. sad news from the football world. hall of fame kicker george blanda passed away yesterday. he played pro football for an incredible 26 seasons, more than anyone in pro football history. the average career today in the nfl, three years. blanda signed with chicago as a rookie in 1949 and retired in 1976 at the age of 49. it wasn't a gimmick. he was still getting it done at 49, just before his 49th birthday. at the time of his retirement, blanda held the nfl scoring record with 2,000 points.

he played with the bears, colts and oilers but will be best remembered for his final nine years with the raiders. george blanda was 83 years old. baseball last night. phillies looking to clinch their fourth straight nl east crown. the champagne on ice in the clubhouse. second inning, jayson werth gets the party started with a towering solo shot to left. phils go up 1-0. that's all they needed. roy halladay was dealing. here he is in the third striking out dunn. halladay pitched a complete game for a baseball best 21st of the season. phillies win 8-0. they clinch the nl east title. some other scores last night, atlanta won, san diego lost. atlanta a half game up in the nl wild card. yanks and rays both lost, so the rays still a half game up on the yankees. >> red sox won. >> oh, the red sox won from the irrelevant file. coming up on "morning joe,"

vice president joe biden in an exclusive interview on the premiere of "the last word with lawrence o'donnell" addressing for the first time the picture painted in bob woodward's book over a white house fighting on what to do in afghanistan. when we come back here, we'll huddle around the water cooler to watch sarah palin's front-row visit to "dancing with the stars" last night. was she really booed by the audience when she was audience or are the blogs stirring up trouble this morning? we'll play the clip and let you decide when "way too early" comes right back. ?)?)?)?)?)?)?))

what we've got to do is to look at the success of these schools, find out how do we duplicate them and make sure that we are still holding charter schools accountable, the same way we are all the schools. president obama weighing in on the impact of charter public schools during an exclusive interview yesterday with matt lauer. those schools which get public money along with private donations have succeeded in many places where traditional public schools failed, not always but in most cases.

the number of students enrolled in charter schooled nearly quadrupled from '99 to 2008. this is according to the national center for education statistics which also found the percentage of public schools which were charter schools increase from 2% to 5% during that same period. enough of the real news, let's gather around the water cooler to begin a countdown to history. t.j., put up the clock. two weeks from today, that's right, in just 330 hours, 7 minutes b 45 seconds from now, my book "american freak show" will be released. it will take mike 330 hours to walk to the book store if you ever seen him shuffle with his walker. you can wait until october 12th of preorder it on amazon. the first chapter -- this thing will be part of core public school curriculum for generations to come. speaking of education nation, that first chapter is about

sarah palin. and how appropriate, sarah palin was in attendance last night cheering on her daughter bristol on "dancing with the stars." bristol gave a fine performance, but all the talk this morning was about sarah's front-row appearance. let me set up the controversy for you a bit here. jennifer gray, in the dancing movie "dirty dancing" apparently the big star on "dancing with the stars." so, she danced very well. a lot of people expecting big scores. she only got three 8s. a lot of people thought she should have had 9s. so was the audience booing the score here's or the introduction of sarah palin? listen. >> a lot of it. >> if you don't want to see them meet the same shock that they saw meet david hasselhoff.

there is booing in the ballroom, we don't know why. why is there booing? >> we don't know. >> i'm here with guest ballroom commentator, sarah palin who joins us from alaska. >> let's dig deeper into this completely nonsensical controversy. let's listen one more time. again, are they booing the fact that jennifer gray deserved better scores? are we getting a back-end boo on gray or a front-end boo on sarah palin? >> if you don't want to see them meet the same shock that met david hasselhoff's ballroom dreams, end it now. there is booing in the ballroom. >> it is a shocking controversy tearing at the fabric of this controversy. sarah palin in that interview, she was in the front row cheering on her daughter, talked to tom bergeron, your host and ringmaster on "dancing with the stars." let's listen. >> sarah, good to have you here. i know usually you're very

bashful about giving your opinion about things. how do you think the show is going so far? >> this is amazing. so exciting. great to see the courage, joy and exuberance. the judges are awesome. it's like before a hockey game, you're not going to chew out your refs before the team is up on the ice. they're great. you guys are doing great. >> all right. >> okay. >> and your favorite dancer so far? >> so far -- my goodness, they're all amazing. they are. bristol is not up yet. >> that's true. >> bristol the pistol. yeah. >> bristol the pistol and sarah palin, they were not booing her. fun to talk about her. we talked about the home and home series, jon stewart visiting bill o'reilly. last night, bill o'reilly visiting "the daily show." they threw rose petals what are the topics? mr. glenn beck. >> i wanted to come on the glenn beck program with my book, they

wouldn't have us. >> they didn't know who you were. >> i called. >> i told beck, have stewart, he's funny once in a while. doesn't know who you are. >> i would love to have a conversation with him. >> with glenn beck? >> we could do an hour. >> he is in a sealed room. >> no. >> nobody can talk to him. >> is he like the bubble boy of fox news. >> does the radio, goes back into the sealed room. he goes back. he's like elvis and howard hughes. you can't. >> it's a love fest. stewart and oh ri'reilly. before we go to break, the clock is ticking. only 330 hours and three minutes left to buy "american freak show." still ahead, your freakish text and e-mails are next. and "morning joe" moments away. [ female announcer ] it can creep up on you. dry skin.

that's why there's lubriderm® daily moisture. it contains the same nutrients naturally found in healthy skin. skin absorbs it better and it lasts for 24 hours. later gator. lubriderm. your moisture matched. [ male announcer ] at ge capital, we're out there every day with clients like jetblue -- financing their fleet, sharing our expertise, and working with people who are changing the face of business in america. after 25 years in the aviation business, i kind of feel like if you're not having fun at what you do, then you've got the wrong job. my landing was better than yours. no, it wasn't. yes, it was. was not. yes, it was. what do you think? take one of the big ones out?

nah. ready to try something new? campbell's has made changes. adding lower sodium sea salt to more soups. plus five dollars in coupons to get you started. campbell's condensed soup. pass it on. campbell's.® it's amazing what soup can do.™ bankers are known to be a little bit in love with themselves.. trust me. are we going up? we can get the next one. i'd like to get your advice on hedging - risk... exposure. what makes us different? for 300 years we've chosen to focus on our clients. what a novel idea. like i just wish that all of the important information was gathered together in one place. [ printer whirs ] done.

♪ thanks. do you work here? not yet. from tax info to debunking myths, the field guide to evolving your workforce has everything you need. download it now at thinkbeyondthelabel.com. msnbc.com, a front-page story in the "new york times," cia steps up drone attack within pakistan. we are in the control room where hours ago they finished a celebration.